1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a face feature extraction apparatus and method, and more particularly, to a face feature extraction apparatus and method for a two-dimensional (2D) face identification system having high face identification rate.
2. Description of the Related Art
Face identification can be performed using two-dimensional (2D) photo based method and three-dimensional (3D) modeling based method. The 3D modeling based face identification method has a high identification rate and stable performance in a variety of environments, however, it requires expensive equipment and a user face cannot be identified in real time due to a large computational amount that is performed. The 2D photo based face identification method is greatly influenced by illumination, face direction, and face expressions, however, it does not require expensive equipment and a user's face can be quickly identified.
The most important operation that a 2D photo based face identification system must perform is extraction of face features. Since a large amount of computation is required to identify a user's face from an original face photo having high-level data, the efficiency of the system is reduced. Also, when the original face photo contains factors (e.g., noise) that hinder face identification, the 2D photo based face identification system has a low identification rate. Therefore, it is necessary that a part suitable for face identification is extracted from the original face photo or a face image is re-expressed to be suitable for face identification. A base vector is generally used to extract face features. The base vector is a face description model and face features depend on the base vector. Accordingly, a face feature extraction method includes a base vector generation method.
However, since a conventional 2D photo based face identification system has a low identification rate, an apparatus and method for increasing the face identification rate are required.